Living

• Mar 28, 2022

  What's in a rating?

  I often use the average ratings of books/movies from Goodreads/IMDB in order to decide what to read/watch next. Unfortunately, if there are not enough ratings, the average rating is often inflated, and it seems to decrease with the number of ratings. Plots of two datasets of books and movies show that the story is slightly more complicated.

• Mar 4, 2022

  Dulce et decorum

  Since last week some verses are rattling around in my head. Initially I felt that they did not properly honor the resistance of the Ukrainians. Today, reading some refugees’ testimonials, I am convinced that these words are still relevant, even after more than 100 years.

  Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
  Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
  Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
  And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

• Feb 27, 2022

  Thoughts about modern architecture

  If asked about traditional Romanian architecture one often thinks about something like this:

  

  Most houses in Romanian villages actually look like this:

  

  

• Jan 22, 2022

  Geographic centers of Romanian counties

  For those lacking travel destinations I have a map with geographical centers (centroids) of each Romanian county. For the moment only latitude and longitude to be checked in Google Maps.